Man is suffering from a block of energy. It is very difficult for us to understand. because we people have become too materialistic. I am not talking that we are materialistic from the point of view that we drink or smoke. No. I am using the word materialistic in the technical sense. We can understand matter, but we are not able to know the spirit. The final sphinx.
When we hear music we start jumping because it is affecting our gross body. We are not able to visualize the subtle forms of music, the sound vibrations, because we are materialistic. Our mind is now only able to comprehend and understand the physical, material base of experience and not the subtler experiences. I say we are materialistic in that sense.
What has to happen? How to break this addiction to materialism? Please understand once more that by materialism I don’t mean our personal lives, I mean our philosophy, our capacity to comprehend experiences. How to break man’s addiction to materialism? Why should you not be able to see the mind behind the mind? Why should you not be able to see the matter behind matter? Scientists could see it so they brought up the concept of energy.
For an ordinary man this is just matter, but for the scientist it was not matter, it was the base of energy. Therefore, he could liberate energy from matter. In the same way, should we conclude that mind is the ultimate form of experience? Should we conclude that our consciousness is final and absolute and that there is nothing beyond this? Should we conclude that it is not possible for man to transcend this realm of experience and have a wider range of experience?
Maybe our frustrations, our physical illnesses and emotional problems are due to our limitations of understanding. ‘I’m unhappy, frustrated, I want to commit suicide. I don’t like my husband, or wife, children. I’m fed up with life. Maybe this particular behaviour of the mind which a person is undergoing is due to the inability of the mind to have a better experience.
When I am repulsed with life, I ask, ‘Sun?’ And the sun is not shining. I say, ‘What happened to the Sun? It is very hazy.’ The sun is not hazy; your eyes are not working. There seems to be something like a cataract in man’s inner vision. Due to that cataract we are not able to experience life as it should be experienced. It is a matter of experience, and experience is a quality of consciousness. How do we improve the quality of consciousness? It has to be done practically and is not intellectually, please.
You will have to get down to the point somewhere. If you like you practise raja yoga. If you don’t like it practise something else. If you don’t like that as well, then practise any yoga you like, however the most important thing in yoga is to connect yourself with the source of energy.
24 May 1980, Dublin, Eire